Gates Orders Review of Policy That Bars Photographers From Taking Pictures of Soldiers’ Coffins

Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested on Tuesday that he was open to allowing the media to photograph the flag-draped coffins of fallen soldiers as their bodies and remains are returned to the United States...

He said he was ordering a review of the military policy that bars photographers from taking pictures of the return of the
coffins, most of which are coming from Iraq and Afghanistan and go through Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. He also
set a "short deadline" for a decision. The military has said the policy is meant to protect the privacy of the families of the
dead soldiers and maintain dignity. But skeptics, who include some families as well as opponents of the war in Iraq, say
that the bodies in the returning coffins are not publicly identified, so privacy is not an issue, and that barring photographers
is a political maneuver meant to sanitize the war... His comments followed those of President Obama, who said at his news
conference Monday night that "we are in the process of reviewing those policies in conversations with the Department of
Defense."

A White House official said Tuesday that Mr. Obama had ordered some of his top foreign policy aides to review the matter
and that they would look at past practices and possibly meet with families of fallen soldiers to solicit their views. The review
appears to be a priority for Mr. Obama... An effort in Congress to overturn the current ban has had little support, but
Representative Walter Jones, a Republican from North Carolina, said Tuesday that he would renew his push for legislation
to allow the media access when coffins come home.

Mr. Jones voted for the use of force in Iraq and helped lead the effort to rename French fries in the House cafeteria as
"freedom fries." But he came to regret his vote after he attended the funeral of a local Marine, and he began writing
letters to people who had lost a loved one in the war. He said today that by now he has written more than 8,000 letters.

"If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind," Mr. Jones said of the war. "People don’t think about it unless they have a visual."